Samarkand, Uzbekistan

Tourists on Registan square
Shakhi-Zinda necropolis
In the fifteenth century, during the time of Ulug Beg, structures were less grandiose but were distinguished by nobility of form and a great harmony of colored enameled revetment: the entry portals, the mausoleums of Kazy-zade-Rumi, the octagonal Shakhi-Zindah, and the madrasah in Reghistan, the large square in the busiest part of the city (1420). Ulug Beg's observatory outside Samarkand was a unique structure. After Ulug Beg was murdered it was abandoned and by the sixteenth century it was in ruins.
Alongside the monumental fifteenth century buildings, smaller architectural ensembles were erected. Such is the ensemble Khoja Abdi-Darun. When Bukhara once again became the capital in the sixteenth century, there was less construction in Samarkand, and many structures suffered neglect. In the seventeenth century the Madrasah Shir-Dor (1619-1636) was built, where once stood now the now nonexistent khana-gah of Ulug Beg. 
The building stands on the same axis as the Ulug Beg Madrasah and repeats its facade not only in size but also in its overall composition. The third side of Reghistan Square was occupied with Tillah-kari Madrasah (1646-1660). As Timur's Bibi-khanum mosque was in ruins by that time, a Friday mosque was added to the complex of structures comprising the Tillah-kari Madrasah.
After the seventeenth century, the situation in the country changed. Never did architecture in Samarkand reach such heights again. But the ancient city continued to exist, and now it is once more a thriving, developing city, one of the industrial and cultural centers of Uzbekistan.
Sherdor madrassah
Stone Koran stand in Bibi-Khanum madrassah